'Zen Zonder Meester'.
Frenk Meeuwsen is a Dutch painter and visualizer from Amsterdam. He works for commercial clients through the Roughmen agency, and didn't make his actual debut as a comic artist until 2017, when his spiritual graphic novel 'Zen Zonder Meester' was released. It was followed in 2020 by the semi-autobiographical 'Jaar Nul'.
Early life and comics career
Born in 1965, Frenk Meeuwsen was nineteen years old when he joined Evert Geradts, Ben Jansen, Hanco Kolk, René Meulenbroek and Aloys Oosterwijk in their Studio Arnhem as an apprentice. During this period, he illustrated one short comic story, 'De Pavlov Reflex', written by René Meulenbroek, which was published in 1986 in the amateur comic magazine Coyote. It was reprinted in the 2017 memorial book 'Terug Naar Studio Arnhem'. In August 2016, Meeuwsen chronicled his time at the studio in a short comic story for the Studio Arnhem issue of comics news magazine Stripnieuws.
'De Pavlov Reflex'.
After his stint at Studio Arnhem, Frenk Meeuwsen didn't further pursue his career in comics, but instead picked up painting and illustrating. He later completed his artistic education at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (1991-1995) and at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts, 1996-1997) in Amsterdam.
'1 Jaar Studio Arnhem' (Stripnieuws #64, 2016)
Meeuwsen is also a practitioner of Eastern martial arts and has a black belt in karate.In the mid-1990s, his fascination for the philosophical thinking of the Far East led him to Japan, where he lived in the temple city of Kyoto. He has since exhibited his paintings in his home country and abroad. Through the Amsterdam-based Roughmen agency, Meeuwsen has worked for commercial clients as a visualizer and storyboard artist.
'What is the sound of one clapping hand?' (From: 'Zen Zonder Meester')
Zen Zonder Meester
In the 2010s, Frenk Meeuwsen returned to the comics medium, when he started to chronicle his search for spirituality, truth, himself and the essence of Japan in short comic stories. Most stories take place in Japan, but the author also regularly revisited his youth in the Netherlands, with his father as his first guru. For these stories, he applied a black-and-white drawing style, strongly inspired by French artist David B. To Meeuwsen, "a drawing is like a Zen garden: wavy lines on snow-white paper." The 55 semi-autobiographical chapters were collected in the graphic novel 'Zen Zonder Meester' ("Zen Without a Master"), published by Sherpa in November 2017, and simultaneously released in Germany by Avant Verlag as 'Zen ohne Meister'.
'Jaar Nul'.
Jaar Nul
Meeuwsen's second graphic followed in 2020. With the semi-autobiographical 'Jaar Nul' (Sherpa, 2020), he gave an intimate, loving and humorous look in the life of a man in his fifties, who becomes a father for the first time. From the doubts in advance - Meeuwsen never wanted children before - and the heavy pregnancy with problematic delivery, to the pure practical issues of preparing the nursery, changing diapers and the well-intended advise of friends. Still, the book never became heavy-handed, and showed the bearded biker from his softest side! The book was also published in German ('Jahr Null') and French ('L'Année Zéro').
'Zen Zonder Meester' was presented in Amsterdam-based comics shop Lambiek on 24 November 2017.